


scolded

by yourlocalheartbreaker



Series: the baby hotchner au [3]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: But He's A Teen in This, Gen, Hurt Aaron Hotchner, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Parental David Rossi, Yes It's The Baby Hotchner AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 11:59:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29153157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourlocalheartbreaker/pseuds/yourlocalheartbreaker
Summary: an anon tumblr asked:For the baby hotchner, (in this one he would be on the older side) I wanted to see hotch do something that made a team member lightly scold him for something small, then hotch breaking down saying he is sorry and won’t do it again and begging them not to hurt/hit him.The team looks at each other shocked, because they had always had their suspicions about his father but never realized just how bad it was. and when they realize what his childhood was like they smother him even more and give him lots of hugs 🤗 💗
Relationships: Aaron Hotchner & David Rossi
Series: the baby hotchner au [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2072898
Comments: 4
Kudos: 31





	scolded

**Author's Note:**

> I do want to write the baby hotchner au, but I also feel like everything for it is trash and not worth posting but I also want anyone that was interested in it and not on tumblr to see what comes of it, so here we are!
> 
> tw: past child abuse

Aaron Hotchner is fourteen years old. The same age he was when his father sent him to boarding school for being too difficult and too much. And he feels trapped and on edge.

He’s on edge because everyone else seems stressed out. And he has memories of life up to the age of fourteen now. It’s never a good thing when his father got stressed out. He knows that the team are different, but he’s still scared. Scared that he’s going to do the wrong thing and all that pent-up anger is going to come out full force and he won’t be enough to stop it and then somebody else will get hurt and it will all be his fault.

His stress means he’s tapping his pen. Because he’s fourteen and has hit his first growth spurt, Dave is much more willing to let him out of his sight for longer periods of time. So he’s sat in the bullpen as everyone does their paperwork, but at some point during the day, Dave slammed the door to his office and started talking to Morgan in hushed tones, which only angered the other man.

Dave is sat with them now, but the anger rolls off of him in waves. Morgan’s jaw is clenched. Whatever upset the two of them has also affected Emily and Spencer. The two of them are trying to look neutral- most like for Aaron’s sake- but they aren’t doing a very good job. They seem annoyed too.

Aaron kept tapping his pen.

“Aaron could you stop that please. It’s very distracting,” Dave said. It came out harsher than he intended, but he also doesn’t have the patience. Stupid politics. Their jobs are supposed to be about saving people, not sucking up to their superiors so they get the funding they need.

Not want. Need.

“Sorry,” Aaron muttered. He had finished the crossword from Spencer over ten minutes ago, but he didn’t have permission to leave. And he didn’t want them to think he was hiding. Nothing good ever came from hiding. He knew that much.

Strike one.

But he was bored. Before he even knew what he was doing, he was unintentionally drumming his fingers on the table. Dave looked up, annoyance clear in his eyes and Aaron’s own eyes widened. He immediately stopped and sat on his hand.

Strike two. If he wasn’t careful, something bad was going to happen. Although the team seemed like good people, and he knew that they would never intentionally hurt people, he remembered how anger changed people. His father would use his fists. His mother would spit words at her eldest son, not caring when each one was a paper cut on his heart.

They were all on edge. He wasn’t sure what he was meant to do, apart from be perfect. But there was no standard he needed to surpass. Nobody had asked anything of him, and it was beginning to stress him out. Were they just expecting him to know? Was that why they seemed so angry with him?

His heart was beginning to pound and bile rose in the back of his throat. These people were so good to him. He couldn’t disappoint them. He wouldn’t disappoint them or they would send him away and he would be alone.

Alone like his mother and her pain.

He had started tapping his foot in an attempt to relax himself. He hadn’t heard the noise his shoes made on the hard flooring.

“Aaron could you please stop tapping,” Dave said, finally having enough. His voice was angry, not at Aaron but at everyone else. 

The tapping stopped and Dave looked up, about to suggest that Aaron leave and go for a short walk because he must’ve been bored and it probably wasn’t very good for him to be around them as they were all just moody and irritated.

The words died on the tip of his tongue.

Aaron had tears in his eyes. They were falling onto his jeans. His head was bowed and his hands were shaking, fisted in the denim.

“Aaron?” Dave said. He looked to Morgan who didn’t say anything. Aaron didn’t look up. Dave stood- even though they’d been sat next to each other- and stood by Aaron’s chair.

“Aaron?” he repeated, making his voice a bit firmer.

Aaron jerked in his chair. “Please don’t hurt me. I promise, I’ll be better but just don’t hurt me. Don’t send me away. I won’t be bad, I’ll be good, but I just, please. Just this once. Give me a chance.”

Immediately Dave dropped to his knees, ignoring the sound of protest they made. He needed to look smaller now. More vulnerable.

“Hey, hey, look at me,” he said, feeling sick to his stomach. The team had always had their suspicions and assumptions about Aaron and the events of his childhood, but this… this broken little boy in him was the: guess what, you’re right! That he had never wanted.

Aaron lifted his head enough to make eye contact.

“I’m not going to hurt you Aaron,” he said, holding his hands out so the teen could see them.

“But you were- you were angry. And you’ve been stressed all day. It’s what, it’s what my dad does- did- when he got like that. And when I tried to stop it, he sent me away.”

Morgan moved away slightly, wanting to give the two of them some semblance of privacy.

“Oh little one,” Dave said. Aaron smiled slightly. He liked that Dave still called him little one, even though he was now taller than Penelope.

“I wasn’t angry at you, I just got annoyed by the tapping because I’m stressed about other things. And nobody is ever going to hurt you like that again. Ever, do you hear me? It was wrong then and it is wrong now and I am so sorry that it ever happened in the first place.”

“Do you promise?” Aaron said, voice shaky.

“Of course I promise. What do you want from me, right now?”

“A hug,” Aaron whispered.

Dave would never deprive the boy in front of him of something as simple as that. He smiled, and opened his arms. Aaron hugged him tightly. Perhaps too tightly, but neither of them was about to complain.

And if it meant that Aaron would learn to associate touch with love instead of hate, then Dave would gladly sit there for a million years.


End file.
